Microsoft Rewrites Exam Policy

You may recall that just recently, Microsoft's certification and skills assessment group has rewritten its exam and certification policy (see "Microsoft Rescinds Retirement of NT 4.0 MCSE Track" in News). An interesting change to note is how Microsoft is now allowing MCSE on Windows 2000 candidates to count formerly retired exams as valid electives.

According to an announcement posted on the company's MCP Web site, "Discontinuation of Exams," Microsoft has added formerly retired exams to the MCSE on Windows 2000 track. It also now considers these exams as "discontinued" — to distinguish them as still having validity — rather than retired. (This change hasn't been made site-wide; as of this writing, some pages on the Microsoft site still use the word "retired" for the same, discontinued exams.)

The announcement also says that current and future exams will have a minimum shelf life of two years, after which exams will be discontinued as needed. The discontinuation indicates that some exams, while no longer available, can still be counted toward newer certifications and tracks.

Discontinued exams that now count under the Windows 2000 track include:

Microsoft hasn't indicated whether exams such as 70-067, Windows NT 4.0 Server, will be brought out of retirement. To see the matrix for the MCSE on Windows 2000, click here.

The new policy ties in with the company's recent decision not to retire certifications themselves — instead, titles will be identified by track (MCSE NT 4.0, MCSE 2000, etc.).— CertCities.com Editor Becky Nagel contributed to this report.

About the Author

Michael Domingo has held several positions at 1105 Media, and is currently the editor in chief of Visual Studio Magazine.